The City of Bacolod is not ready to relocate about 130 informal settlers occupying the property between the Manokan Country and the Vendor's Plaza in Brgy 12, Bacolod City, Bacolod Councilor El Cid Familiaran said during the second committee hearing on its proposed sale yesterday. Familiaran, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Housing and Resettlement, said he is concerned about what may happen to the 130 informal settlers if the city sells the Manokan Country since the Bacolod Housing Authority is not ready to accommodate them at the relocation site. In an interview after the hearing, an executive assistant of Mayor Monico Puentevella confirmed that the Bacolod City government is bent on selling the Manokan Country at the Reclamation Area in Bacolod City and that they want to fast-track the sale. Familiaran said that at present, there are applicants or awardees, who have been issued court orders for demolition, who cannot transfer yet to the relocation site because the area is not ready. He said that under Republic Act 7279 or the "Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992," the electrical connections, water and other basic facilities must be in place in the relocation site before the local government transfers the informal settlers there. When asked by Familiaran during the public hearing yesterday about the situation at the relocation site, acting BHA head Joel Vergara said their request for installation of transformers and electrical connection with the City Engineer's Office is still pending. Vergara said Central Negros Electric Cooperative is also waiting for these materials so they can start the electrification of the relocation site where the informal settlers are to be relocated. Familiaran said the BHA does not even have an updated figure of the actual number of informal settlers there. He said it was Kagawad Bobby Diarota who informed the committee that presently, there are about 130 informal settlers in the area during the first public hearing Monday. Familiaran said there are 800 lots prepared by National Housing Authority at the Arao relocation site but only 100 have been relocated there. About 300 to 400 are scheduled for relocation, but because the place has no electrical connection, they could not yet be transferred, he said. So what will happen to the more or less 130 informal settlers from Barangay 12? He asked. Since they are the responsibility of the city government, the city should go slow on its plan to sell the Manokan Country unless it could provide the basic needs and requirements before they could be transferred. Puentevella has said he had received last Jan. 22 an allegedly unsolicited proposal from SM Prime Holdings Inc. offering to purchase the property at Rizal Street, Road Lot 4 and Burgos Street at the Reclamation Area that houses the Manokan Country and the Vendors Plaza, including an adjacent parking area, with an area of 13, 783 square meters. SMPHI has offered to purchase the property at P20,500 per square meter. The company plans to develop the property into an integrated shopping complex with a transport terminal, a hotel and an improved Manokan Country. The stall owners of the Manokan Country have issued a position paper expressing their strong opposition to the proposed sale of the Manokan Country to private investors. Teresita Mondres, spokesperson of the Manokan Country Vendor's Association, said they are against the privatization of the Manokan Country since this will result to higher rentals and the dislocation of many of those whose livelihood depend on it. Mondres said that if the city could improve the facility, this will become more attractive to tourists and also help local and small businessmen in Bacolod City. If the city pushes through with the sale of the Manokan Country, they will wait and see and plan their next move. The fight is not yet over, she added. T he Social Action Center of the Diocese of Bacolod had advised Puentevella and the SP not to rush the sale of Manokan property or this will be made a political issue against them. Yesterday's joint hearing was conducted by the Committees on Laws, Government Assets, Markets, and Urban Poor.*CGS BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
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